Hallo,I'm Giacomo and I'm typing from Europe.I love South Africa and mainly I love its tortoises.I need to know more as for regolation of keeping and trading tortoises.The only thing I know is that you need a certificate of birth in captivity to buy or to sell a tortoise.Also I know that you can't get tortoises from wild and keep them at home.But let's say that someone had for long time(20years) a Chersina Angulata,what happen if he want to get rid of it?And if he has babies from the female,what should he do?I'm asking all of this because my secret dream is to create a tortoise farm in south africa.Thank you guys

A difficult one to answer! A tortoise farm? We struggle to keep our guests happy with a reptile park, i do not believe a tortoise farm will do very well here on its own. Unless you intend to comercially farm them for some reason?? You will be able to get permits, however you will need a business plan as well as a good CV to prove you are capable of doing whatever it is that you intend.

I dont think you will ever be allowed to open a "tortoise farm" in SA.It is illegal to sell them and finding homes for all the babies will be extremely difficult.

You might be able to open a tortoise sanctuary,where you take in lost,hurt and unwanted tortoises and then breed them and release the babies into the wild.Im not sure if you can charge people to come in though,like a snake park,so you will need to get donations to keep running.

A tortoise farm might work very well in South Africa. It is possible to get any tortoises on permit (Geometric will be rather difficult though) but it is possible. I would suggest you get an area right in the middle of the areas where the most species occur so that they can live on the plants that they are used to. This will probably be in the Karoo somewhere. You can keep most of the species together and they will co-exist well. Go look at the ranges for all the species and see where the biggest overlap of the species that you want to keep will be. Supplementing their food will be critical to ensure the best reproduction and ensuring the predation on the eggs and hatchlings is kept to a minimum is the next most important.

If you register as a zoological garden then you should be able to accept confiscated animals and any progeny will be able to be sent to other institutions. With some common species like Angulate and Leopard tortoises I think trade will also be allowed however you will have to negotiate this with the local authorities.

If you are using camps of a number of hectares each then you can also provide places for lizards or other reptiles and invite people for photographic safaris. Winter will be bad for business because it is cold and everything will be sleeping.

If you really use technology (like DNA fingerprinting) then the authorities may actually use you as a safe haven for certain species. Currently there is nobody actively working with the in-situ conservation of our tortoises and as you know we have the most species of any country. Geometric tortoises have one single project going and that is a bit of a disaster.

Combining this with some other form or tourism or animal husbandry will be a must to ensure an income all year around.

Hallo guys and thank you very much for the quick and kind answers.Besides the farm idea(which is a very long-term plan eventually),I really like to know more because I get contradictory informations.

For example:I located some Chersina for sale in Cape Town. There were no problem if I would buy and keep them in South Africa,but when I asked about the chance to export them,the seller told me that is impossibile because they are adults and they don't have captive bred certificates!So ,Could I buy them legally but can't bring them out legally?To me it sounded very strange,because in Europe if you own a tortoise legally,you can do whatever you want with it.

I luckly found this nice forum so you can resolve my doubts.

1)When I wish to buy a south african tortoise in C.i.t.e.s. App II ,what kind of certificate should I receive?2)Let's say that I have a pair legal:i breed them and I get babies,what should I do?3)Let's say taht I ahve a pair got in the wild:can I get permits to keep the babies?

Giacomo wrote:Hallo guys and thank you very much for the quick and kind answers.Besides the farm idea(which is a very long-term plan eventually),I really like to know more because I get contradictory informations.

For example:I located some Chersina for sale in Cape Town. There were no problem if I would buy and keep them in South Africa,but when I asked about the chance to export them,the seller told me that is impossibile because they are adults and they don't have captive bred certificates!So ,Could I buy them legally but can't bring them out legally?To me it sounded very strange,because in Europe if you own a tortoise legally,you can do whatever you want with it.

I luckly found this nice forum so you can resolve my doubts.

1)When I wish to buy a south african tortoise in C.i.t.e.s. App II ,what kind of certificate should I receive?2)Let's say that I have a pair legal:i breed them and I get babies,what should I do?3)Let's say taht I ahve a pair got in the wild:can I get permits to keep the babies?

Thank you very much for any help.

IT IS MOST LIKELY THEN THAT THIS PERSON SELLING THE TORTIOSES ARE KEEPING THEM ILLEGAL. (IMO)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure... - Nelson Mandela

In the Cape provinces the issuing of CITES permits for tortoises going to private individuals is not approved. This is a policy they have had for years now and they will not change. Even certain zoos struggle to export the most common species.

Be aware that we have numerous scams like the 419 scams and the animals do not exist.

I would not buy animals from any private individuals. If they are on a zoos excess stock list as CB then possibly otherwise you are going to be looking at problems.